In the first place what Sterling uttered was in the privacy of his own home. Is
there no such thing as privacy anymore?

Secondly, it was not a racist
comment. Racist involves the idea that one's own race is superior. There
was nothing in Sterling's comment indicating that. In fact, Sterling has
helped many Blacks throughout his life in athletics programs and has donated
millions to the NAACP.

Third, what happened to the First
Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech? People should be able to say
anything they wish without being punished... including comments that some might
consider racist.

And fourthly, what about racist comments by Al
Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Lewis Farrakhan, et al, who've all made racist
statements about Whites? Why did you not cover their comments in your
article?

And finally, where are your comments about the so-called
Affirmative Action in the professional sports world? As was stated by Magic
Johnson and others, 80 percent of players in the professional sports world are
Blacks. Shouldn't there be equality of White/Black in professional
football/basketball industry as is required in all other industries/businesses?

oh please, like the NBA and its owners are a bunch of moral examples for us?
How ridiculous. Sterling is an imbecile and made some racist comments, but he
presently employs a coach with black skin and players with black skin and pays
them fair market value and trusts them to do their jobs in the organization.
Sterling did some bad stuff in the past. But the NBA's reaction to this is
just following the political and pop culture worlds' current trends to zoom
into PC overboard while giving minimal thought to the inner good. though their
lips speak of goodness and love and righteousness, their (the NBA's) hearts
are far removed from those things.

The NBA’s reaction was outrageous and WAY over the top. People were
offended at Sterling’s comments (and rightly so), but have racist words
now become the unpardonable sin?? A $2.5 million fine, and the forced sale of
your team??!! Wow. Sterling’s super-extreme punishment, and the fact
that so many people appear to support it, are both sad and scary.

It's interesting that the Mav's owner is getting hammered for comments
he made that are exactly what Pres. Obama said in 2008 when talking about his
grandmother. Hate speech is one thing. Personal opinion, no matter how off-base,
is still a personal right.

and @wrz"People should be able to say anything they wish without being punished...
including comments that some might consider racist."

You need to
go back school to refresh US government/civics 101. People are able to say
anything they wish, without being prosecuted by government, but they have to
face other consequences... including some strong comments that against you and
other results.

NBA is a private business organization, even if you
condole Donald Sterling's racist remarks, you can not deny that his remarks
harm the organization’s business interest, harm the brand name, 3/4 of NBA
players are black, they want him go, the team lost some sponsors due to this
controversy and it directly harms the profit outlook of the whole league. This business organization can make decision to kick him out based on their
constitution and bylaws, they don't need your approval.

Mark Cuban, the owner of the NBA Houston Mavericks team, in a recent national
interview, publicly expressed his own race fears. It is all over the Internet
for the Des-News readers purview. Where is the Public Outrage over this NBA
Owner's views? Where are the NBA fines and Sanctions?

The take
away from the d'affair Sterling is: 1.) There is no longer privacy. Private
conversations no longer exist. 2.) Never say anything not nice about anyone
period. 3.) Never date anyone 50 years younger than yourself, it comes to no
good end. 4.) Entering into or Breaking off a Contractual(romantic?)relationship
for a Billionaire may not be worth it anymore.

Rodney Smith, you start this piece with the story of your mother washing your
own mouth out with soap when you were young and said something hateful. Now
that you're an adult, if you again said something hateful in the privacy of
your own home, if someone tattled to your mother about it, would you still
expect your mother to barge in and come wash your mouth out with soap? Is that
still your mother's (the NBA's) job?

@wrz"Third, what happened to the First Amendment's guarantee of
freedom of speech? People should be able to say anything they wish without being
punished... including comments that some might consider racist."

The First Amendment protects from the gov't intruding on free speech, not
business.

@BYU Track Star"Where is the Public Outrage over
this NBA Owner's views?"

His statement was an
acknowledgement of personal biases that he considers wrong.

So are the Dallas Spurs playing the Oklahoma City Lakers in the playoffs? How
about the San Antonio Rockets? Will the Utah Celtics get a good draft pick at
#5? I wish we had the Phoenix Thunder's Head Coach, Jeff Hornacek.

I think many of the opinions expressed can be discredited already because
their writers don't even know the owners or the actual names of these
teams.

The problem with sterling is that while many knew he was a
racist they didn't actually have evidence to prove that he was. The same
thing happens with NCAA violations. Everyone knows Cam Newton's father
shopped his kid around. But without a paper trail, it cannot be proven. Until
just a few weeks ago, no one had hard (audio) evidence that Sterling was a
racist.

What's interesting is to see folks rush to
Sterling's defense. In particular, repubs. As if racist comments made
"in private" are somehow excusable.

The truth is racism isn't so black and white. On one hand Sterling had
housing projects where it seems like people of color had a hard time getting
access to. On the other hand, I believe Sterling hired the first
African-American general manager (Elgin Baylor) and stayed loyal to him far
beyond what you would expect because Baylor made many terrible decisions and
drafts by any reasonable measure. As stated above, he hired an African-American
head coach and gave him other responsibilities higher up in the organization.
Even his mistress is multi-racial. And then there are the donations by the
NAACP. So Sterling is a mixed bag of sort, like I suppose many Americans out
there.

I guess I find it troubling that the NBA has chosen NOW to
draw the line in the sand. Like I alluded to before, Sterling did other things
far more serious in denying access to people of color in regards to housing.
And that was common knowledge. And the fact that a private conversation was
taped and is being used to oust Sterling is troubling and I believe deserves
more attention. This is a scary development to me.

@the truth"Are you claiming you have right to hurt sterling simply
because you do not like what he said?."

Employers can fire
employees for things they say, if you want better job security in the work
regarding free speech I'd recommend supporting stronger labor laws because
we do not have much in the manner of protections for that (some are union
negotiated, think teachers and tenure).